Post-Spoils of War, for 31 Day Challenge: Elephant in the Room Scene.

"We're going home."

Deeks didn't know if his repetition of those three words was helping his sobbing partner or not. If he was being truthful to himself, he didn't know a damn thing about anything at that point in time except that she was alive and he was touching her again after dreaming for five months about what it would feel like when they were reunited.

To say that his dreams didn't come true would be an understatement. From the minute Nell told the team that Kensi was missing, every happy thought he imagined started cracking in his mind like rocks smashing into a windshield. And with every crack, his vision became more and more obstructed until he felt that he couldn't see at all. By the time he ended up lying on the floor crying with a complete stranger in his arms, he was as blind as the cleric he had just tried to torture for information. He had hit rock bottom, and thankfully there was no where to go but up.

The picture was fake, his partner was alive, and everyone was safe for now. Things were starting to become a little clearer now that Kensi was in his arms again. Ignorance was bliss sometimes, however. Marty Deeks didn't excel through law school, or pass the bar on his first try, or rise in the ranks to Detective faster than anybody else in LAPD because he was stupid. The man with Kensi wasn't just a random American captured by the Taliban. He knew it, everybody knew it, even though nobody mentioned it. She would talk about it when she was ready, just like maybe he would confess his sins when he was ready. Or maybe like so many other things in the past, these issues would be swept under the rug and forgotten; like their kiss, his torture, the night they slept together, and the reason she was chosen for the White Ghost mission in the first place.

Deeks' introspection was interrupted when Kensi pulled away from their embrace and wiped her tears with the oversized shirt she had been given at camp. His wet eyes captured hers for a moment before hers drifted to the left again. Jack. Her internal struggle was visible; it was obvious that she wanted to let him go, to stop staring at him as if she was trying to memorize his image. But she couldn't stop.

"Um," Deeks said, clearing his throat. "He, uh, he seems like a really good man."

"He was. Is. That's why I-" she paused, gathering her thoughts. "I knew that what I was led to believe wasn't true. And I was right."

"You were right," he repeated.

Kensi nodded her head, tearing her eyes away to look at her partner. "I know a good man when I see one."

Deeks opened his arms and she fell into them again. Maybe she was right about him being a good man, too. Maybe she wasn't. But that would have to be something he figured out on his own.